A Royal Wedding

I don't know how you are feeling today, but I am so excited.  Silly I now, but I am, I love a good wedding and this will be a good one I'm sure.  A Right Royal Wedding!!!!  What better, honestly I am soooo excited.  I was an absolute Diana fan, she was 6 months younger than me and to be honest I think my fascination started when she actually fell in love with Prince Charles, how did that happen???!!  Really she was a shy, quiet, English Rose and he was big ears!!!! Honestly I could never figure that one out.  But fall she did and I cried when I heard of his disloyalty and for crying out loud with of all people Camila are you kidding me!!!!!!  I cried like a baby when she was killed in Paris, I cried at the funeral for her and her young boys, so bravely walking behind the hearse, oh my heart broke for them, so bravely honouring her.  Now I am rejoicing with Prince William and I am so excited.  I just know Di would be so proud of the wonderful young man he has become, his visit here just a few months ago was a testament of how he really is following in his mum's footsteps.  He visited with flood victims in tiny country towns, he hugged them and he ate an Aussie barby with them.  What a wonderful person he is.  Katherine Middleton, I hope will be his perfect partner and I cannot wait to see the dress, to see the pomp and ceremony of the wedding itself.  I wish I was camped outside the Abbey, actually I wish i was front row centre in the Abbey to be truthful.  I wish I had an invite to the reception and I wish, well I wish I was there!!!

I wonder if Kate's dress will look anything like mine?  A simple affair with matching bridesmaids dresses in red.  Actually my dress was a debutante dress, and it cost $116 that was 29 years ago though. Somehow I don't think Kate's dress will cost anywhere near that. 

I am wondering how Carol Middleton is feeling today.  She is sending her daughter off to become the future Queen of England, though technically I don't know if she can ever be Queen, since she is not of royal lineage herself.  But she will sit beside the future King, what a position to undertake!  I remember how I felt on the day Alicia married Paul 4 years ago.  I was so excited, nervous, in some ways envious that she was getting to do all that wonderful wedding day stuff.  Watching and being a part of all the wedding day preparations was exciting, all the girls having their make up and hair done in our family room, and seeing them transformed into picture perfect beauties. I wished that I had been courted by my Prince Adrian in the same way Alicia had by Paul.  She left our house on the morning of the wedding, she never lived with Paul, nor slept with him until the wedding night.  That to me, these days, is quite wonderful.  They are the most wonderful couple and are learning to love and support each other daily, it so wonderful to watch.  

I know some of these photos aren't the best, I was nervous, shaking like a leaf and trying not to cry.  I didn't want to start Alicia off and ruin the make up, and I wanted to be happy for her, I was of course, but I wanted the day to be filled with laughter and love not me losing it in the corner.

We smiled, laughed yes we did cry a little, but mostly we beamed Adrian and I, with love for our daughter who was heading off to make a life for herself away from us.  We beamed with pride at all of our girls who were such a beautiful group to watch through out the day.  Poised, elegant, beautiful we were so proud of them all.

I think of Diana today, how would she have felt watching her first born son, take a wife.  Would she have been happy with his choice?  Would she be nervous for what the future held for them both?  Would she be excited as she thought about the future and saw grandchildren in the mix?  Would she have been fearful for how they would walk through the life that is a married life?  The trouble, the good times, the excitement, the turmoil, the choices, good and bad, the decision making processes that have to be worked through as a couple now.  As a family we decided when Alicia knew she would be marrying Paul that we needed to let her go and be his wife.  Yes she would always be our daughter, he would be like a son to us but they were now going to be a couple a married couple and we needed to let them be that.  There were a few times after Adrian and I married that I ran away, back to my mother.  I took Alicia and I drove off into the sunset so to speak and ran away for a few days.  It was always after an argument that hadn't ended the way I wanted it to and it was selfish and brattish and mean of me.  I thought at the time it was what all wives did when things got messy, I was wrong.  So together Adrian and I and Alicia talked about how it would be for her to be married.  We would always support her, we would be there to help in any way we could always.  But she knew that when she married Paul she would now have to work through things with him, not us.  And I can say I am so happy and proud of how she has done this.  In all the time they have been together not once has she come running to us telling about their personal problems.  We have been asked to give advise on certain things, but never has it been in the midst of a battle or with malice,  what a different marriage they have to how ours started out.  

They chose to marry and stay married, they never mention divorce, they are determined to love each other, even on those days when they don't feel like they want to.  It is a choice to stay in love every day and they have chosen to make that choice every day.  When they lost their first baby nearly 2 years ago, we saw the strength they have together.  We saw how even though there were many sorrows and many hard decisions to be made, and so much grief to live through, they had built a life together and they knew each other and they talked and cried and they lived through it all.  Now of course they have the Little Princess Elle and life has taken a new road, a happy one, but none the less a road with many turns to take and many decisions to make.  They will make them together and they will know that some were good and some were bad and they will sort it out no matter what.  I hope that same outcome for William and Kate, who also will have some of the same issues and more to sort through.  I hope the media allows them to do it privately, though I have my doubts, and I hope that they choose to love each other every day no matter what.  Right now today though I hope the wedding is spectacular I can't wait!!!!!!